Program Notes for Octophonic
Works

Hildegard
Westerkamp
Talking Rain (1997) 16'

Rainsounds from the westcoast of
British Columbia, Canada, are the basic compositional materials for Talking
Rain. Through them I speak to you about this place. The raincoast.
A lush and green place. Made that way by rain. Nourished by rain,
life-giving rain. The ear travels into the sonic formations of rain,
into the insides of that place of nourishment as well as outside to the
watery, liquid language of animals, forests and human habitations. Talking
Rain was commissioned by CBC Radio for West Coast Performance. It
was realized in my studio, Inside the Soundscape.

Hildegard Westerkamp was born in
Osnabrück, Germany in 1946, emigrated in 1968, and gave birth to
her daughter in 1977. After completing her music studies, her ears were
drawn to the acoustic environment as another cultural context or place
for intense listening. As a composer, educator, and radio artist her
work centres around environmental sound and acoustic ecology. Her
compositions deal with aspects of the acoustic environment: with urban,
rural or wilderness soundscapes, with the voices of children, men and
women, with noise or silence, music and media sounds, or with the
sounds of different cultures. She is a founding member of the World
Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE).

Hildegard
Westerkamp Into the Labyrinth (2000) 15'

Into
the
Labyrinth is a sonic
journey into aspects of India's culture. It occurs on the edge between
dream and reality, in the same way in which many visitors, myself
included, experience this country. Nothing ever happens according to
pre-determined plans or expectations. Although travellers usually do
reach their destination somehow, the journey itself, full of continuous
surprises and unexpected turns, becomes the real place of experience.

In composing this piece, I was
challenging my own compositional process as it has developed over the
last 25 years: just as India has challenged many of my Western
Eurocentric values and turned them upside-down, so has this piece
challenged my preconceived notions of the creative process. From the
start I had the image of entering a labyrinth of a multitude of sounds
and sonic experiences. I had made no plans for the piece other than
letting the recorded sounds move me through a compositional journey
into an unknown sonic labyrinth. Obviously my experiences of travelling
in India and of recording the sounds played a significant role in the
formation of this piece. But I could never be sure of where I was going
and where I would end up. I worked on it continuously as if on a 15-day
journey, where the journey itself became the centre of experience. The
composition simply is a result of that experience.

Into the Labyrinth was
commissioned by "New Adventures in Sound" with the assistance of the
Canada Council and was realized in the Electronic Music Studio of the
School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. Many
thanks to Darren Copeland for giving me this opportunity to explore
composition for 8-channel diffusion. I would also like to thank
Savinder Anand, Mona Madan, Arun Patak, Veena Sharma and her mother
Mrs. Goyal, Situ Singh-Bühler and Virinder Singh for
taking me to the places where the sounds and soundscapes for this
composition were recorded. Without their help and local knowledge I
would have had a difficult time gathering them on tape. Many thanks go
to Max Mueller Bhavan (Goethe Institut Delhi) for inviting me to India
in the first place and giving me the opportunity to meet and work with
those who have become my Indian friends. Listening to India together
has deepened our understanding of each other and our cultures'
differences.

Into the Labyrinth is
dedicated to my daughter Sonja, who courageously travelled through
India by herself and emerged enriched from a labyrinth of new and
complex experiences.

Kacho-fugestu in Japanese means
"to appreciate the beauties of nature". It consists of four Japanese
kanji symbols: Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon. This octophonic piece also
shares four elements working in unity. They are African Jimbe drums,
Javanese Gamelan, Japanese Shakuhachi, and the Marimba. Explorations of
rhythms, timbres, and morphs between these four elements are central to
this work.

Yume No Nakani (Into The Dream),
an
octophonic piece, is a continuation of an earlier work <Lullaby
(1999)> and explores a dream sequence by developing and processing
motivic elements from Lullaby. "All dreams begin here...."

Recently completing his degree in
music at Simon Fraser University, Daniel Colyer's main interest has
been electroacoustic composition. Studying with Barry Truax, Colyer has
made such compositions as Whispers to Paradise (1995) (which
won the Socan Hugh LeCaine Award for Electroacoustic that year), Lullaby
(1998), and the recent octophonic works Yume No Nakani (1999)
and Kacho-Fugetsu (2000).

Peter
Manning (U.K.) In Memoriam CPR (2000) 12'

In Memoriam CPR was
composed during June 2000 at SFU using sound material drawn from the
World Soundscape Project tape archive, and spatialized with Richmond
Sound Design's AudioBox. The Canadian Pacific Railway was established
in 1880, specifically to develop a railway linking British Columbia
with the eastern provinces. For almost 50 years the CPR provided the
primary mode of long distance transport across Canada. In 1992 this
transcontinental passenger service was discontinued and the CPR became
a freight-only enterprise.

Barry Truax Island
(2000) 19'

Island is a 16-track
soundscape composition that blends natural acoustic environmental
sounds with processed versions of the same sounds. The result is a
visit to an imaginary island embued with magical realism, beginning at
the shoreline, proceeding up a rapidly flowing stream, visiting a
resonant cistern, climbing to the windy peak of a mountain lake,
descending again through a nightime forest of crickets, and ending at a
different shoreline.

Original sound recordings by the
World Soundscape Project, Robert
MacNevin, David Monacchi and the composer.

Barry Truax Temple
(2002) 15'

Temple is a 16-track
soundscape composition composed of choral voices that takes place in
the reverberant cathedral of San Bartolomeo, in Busetto, Italy.
However, lacking any specific Christian reference, the work can be
heard as a spiritual voyage in an imaginary temple whose acoustic
properties not only reverberate the choral voices but reflect them back
as ghostly after-images that suggest an inner space of vast dimensions.

Pendlerdrøm (or
"Commuterdream") is a soundscape composition that recreates a
commuter's trip home from the Central Train Station in Copenhagen. At
two points, one in the station and the other on the train, the commuter
lapses into a daydream in which the sounds that were only half heard in
the station return to reveal their musical qualities. It is hoped that
the next day the commuter will hear the musicality of the station's
soundscape in a different manner as a result of the dream; the rest of
us may discover the very same aspects the second time we hear the work.

Barry Truax
Prospero's Voyage (2004) 16'

Prospero's Voyage returns
to the mythical island of the piece Island (2000), except that
this time it is Prospero's island from Shakespeare's The Tempest.
The
work begins with a Shakespearean actor, Christopher Gaze, intoning
Prospero's final speech from the play, "Now are my charms all
o'erthrown …", which culminates with the phrase "Let your indulgence
set me free." Hence the premise of the piece is what happens when
Prospero leaves the island? Before he leaves, however, there is a
rainstorm and a scene where Prospero is circling the listener intoning
a fragment of the speech from the play. In the next scene, he walks
towards the beach, and with a final incantation enters the water and is
submerged by it. His underwater voyage is interrupted by several
"surfacings", but eventually this underwater dreamworld leads to a very
distant place where the piece concludes with Macbeth's speech that ends
with "to the last syllable of recorded time."

In other words, the work may be
interpreted as a theatre piece that takes place in the future where
such magical effects could be possible, e.g. a perfect recreation of a
soundscape that interacts with the performer and transforms his sounds.
Or, it can be understood as a voyage of the imagination where Prospero,
symbolizing the creative powers of the artist, leads us through the
depths of the imagination to its furthest point.

Barry Truax The
Shaman
Ascending (2004-2005) 16'

The Shaman Ascending
evokes the imagery of a traditional shaman figure chanting in the quest
for spiritual ecstasy. However, in this case, the listener is placed
inside of a circle of loudspeakers with the vocal utterances swirling
around at high rates of speed and timbral development. The work
proceeds in increasing stages of complexity as the shaman ascends
towards a higher spiritual state.

The work and its title are
inspired by a pair of Canadian Inuit sculptures by John Terriak with
collectively the same name, as well as Inuit throat singing. All of the
vocal material heard in the piece is derived from recording of the
Vancouver bass singer Derrick Christian.

The Shaman Ascending was
commissioned by the ZKM, Karlsruhe,
Germany and premiered there in February 2005.

Darren
Copeland Memory (1998) 7'

Memory allows one to be at two
places at the same time. It allows one to compare and contrast, to
leave one world and grab hold of another. In a soundscape composition,
spaces dissolve into other spaces the way the present dissolves into a
recollection of the past. For example, one takes the apartment elevator
to emerge not from the foyer of an apartment building, but rather, from
a quiet seaside dock. The composition Memory by Darren Copeland
operates by such subjectivity. One image chases another at will. Often
they collide, interfere, overlap, or else, merge into one.

The soundscapes of Memory
were all recorded in Stockholm (and vicinity) during a visit in
November 1997. The memory in this case is that of Stockholm, and with a
few exceptions, during the time of August Strindberg's lifetime,
approximately a century ago. Featured among the sounds evoking this
period is the elevator Strindberg used in his last apartment. There is
also the changing of the guard cer emony in the Royal Palace;
Strindberg once worked in the library located there. He was also
familiar with the bells quoted in this work. The first from a pair of
churches located in Gamla Stan. The second from the Stadhuset, evoking
battle songs of centuries past. The past is an individual matter,
divided among many intertwining roads, which as a Canadian of mixed
European ancestry explains my attraction to the historical sound
treasures that frequent this composition. Beyond the richness of a
multi-cultural heritage linger many untold stories and vanished
bridges.

Jonathan
Herring ... to sing the love of danger ... (2000) 8:15

The title of this work is from an
English translation of F. T. Marinetti's The Founding and Manifesto
of Futurism, written in 1909. Experimenting with, and being
influenced by the ideas of Futurism, I sought to create music using the
sonic byproducts of modern, technical inventions and their
surroundings. The sound materials for this piece were collected in and
around the factories at the port of Vancouver. An orchestra of "noise
intoners", extracted from this ambience, invites the listener into an
abstract industrial world.

We thus approach
nearer and nearer to the music of noise. Russolo, 1913

Jonathan Herring is a student of
electroacoustic composition in the School for the Contemporary Arts at
Simon Fraser University. ... to sing the love of danger ...
placed first in the Times Play competition of the Canadian
Electroacoustic Community in 2001.

Jonathan
Herring: Moonlight On Flowing Water (2005)

In my studies at SFU I have
developed a passion for the beautiful sound and music of the Javanese
gamelan. Being from and living in Vancouver I have come to enjoy the
soothing sound of rain. In the quote that follows I found the
inspiration to combine these sounds. "Gamelan is comparable only to two
things: moonlight and flowing water. It is pure and mysterious like
moonlight, it is always the same and always changing like flowing
water. It forms for our ears no song, this music, it is a state of
being, such as moonlight itself which lies poured out over the land. It
flows murmuring, tinkling and gurgling like water in a mountain stream.
Yet it is never monotonous. Sometimes the sounds flow faster and
louder, just as water also sometimes speaks more loudly in the night
only to sink back again quietly."Leonhard Huizinga (Dutch writer 1906-1980)

Jonathan Herring: Didg (2005) 6'

Didg is inspired by the
Australian didgeridoo, even though it was realized with the sounds
produced by a common PVC pipe.

Marc Bjorknas: Jamaican
Sound
System (2002) 7:15

The cool and restrained Reggae
style of the late 60s-mid 70s was the perfect vehicle for electronic
experimentation. "Sound systems" would manipulate "dubs" or
instrumental versions of popular songs, leading their patrons into new
acoustical dimensions, transforming the everyday into mystical
experience.

Eric Paul: Lenny
(2001) 11'

Lenny is an 8 speaker
diffusion piece created with short excerpts of the stand-up comedy of
Lenny Bruce. These materials were lengthened using the technique of
interlocking phase loops as pioneered by John Oswald at SFU in the
1970s in his unreleased composition The Burroughs Tapes. By
transferring the work-intensive process, originally done with tape,
into the digital world using Max/MSP, I was able to explore further the
possibilities of this technique. Lenny Bruce's voice was chosen for its
richness in sonic and rhythmic variety as well as for the place that he
holds for his pursuit of freedom of speech.

Craig Noble:
Aerosol (2002) 8:40

A soundscape documentary on and
around Z-Lok, a Vancouver graffiti artist. 15 channels of dialog,
ambient and transformed sounds diffused through 8 speakers.

Adis
Husejnagic: Neptune(2002) 13'

Neptune is he eighth planet from
the Sun and its winds are the fastest in the solar system. The
magnetosphere of Neptune seems to be activated by motions in the icy
layers inside the planet and it produces aurora but very faint ones, as
well as radio emissions and other waves, such as whistler waves, chorus
and hiss.

Adis
Husejnagic:Thanon Khaosan
(2004) 9:45

Thanon in Thai means road. Bang
Lamphu and Khao San Road is an old area with a history dating back over
two centuries and it is one the most popular tourist attractions in
Bangkok. The composition explores the relationship between Thailand's
contemporary soundscape and Chinese, as well as Indian musical
influences.

Adis
Husejnagic: Hyperalgesia (2006) 11.5'

Hyperalgesia is an extreme
sensitivity to pain. Hammered, beaten, prepared and abused, piano is
the source material, in addition to its natural acoustic voice.
Programmable software synthesis environment extends the range of
timbral expression. New pathways inside the piano are created via
octophonic diffusion. One piano was destroyed completely.

Ben Wilson:
Sediment (2003) 8:20

The use of layering plays a key
role in defining the ideas behind Sediment. Multiple levels of
strata exist within sedimentary formations and Sediment uses this
analogy in both a vertical and linear implementation. This could be
heard as descending (or ascending depending on your perspective)
through a rock formation, passing through each level of strata. The
"journey" either ends on the surface or in the centre of the earth.

The presence of non-geological
sounds can refer to historical or archeological discoveries. While
digging, the listener encounters blurred remnants of complex events
that reveal little information to the average person. The experienced
listener/archeologist observes evidence of ancient or recent
civilizations in addition to other paleontological theories. We are
moving either forward or backward through time depending on the
vertical direction of travel.

The majority of sound sources for Sediment
were derived from rock, sand, dirt, gravel and boulders in various
states of activity. There is some use of FM synthesis in Csound as well
as orchestral strings, kalimba (thumb piano), chisel, paper and
scissors sounds that were granulated or pitch shifted and layered.

Ben Wilson: Googolplex
(2003)
10:43

Googol: The number 10 raised to
the power 100 (10100), written out as the numeral 1 followed
by 100 zeros.

Googolplex: The number 10 raised
to the power googol, written out as the numeral 1 followed by 10100
zeros.

Googolplex is an 8-channel
composition using as the only sound source a list of approximately 1017
spoken English words performed separately by a female and male voice.
The words are organized in various ways in order to accentuate the
sonic qualities of their respective phonemes and generate large,
layered densities. The only processing that occurred was time based
editing such as shuffling with various windows to generate streams of
phonemes and extensive manual editing of single words placed in varying
contexts or cut up to generate different textures. There are 24 tracks
of audio bounced to an 8 channel mix with moderate use of computer
controlled diffusion.

The piece begins by exploring the
sounds of whole words spoken separately and in groups of varying
densities by both performers. The words break down into single
consonant sounds and proceed to investigate different types of more
animated gestural events. The pivot point focuses on a single word of
quirky interest and then quickly departs to a section of vowel sounds.
Whole words emerge again out of the broken vowels ending the piece in a
loose palindromic form.

The words were chosen primarily
for their aural qualities (interesting consonant clusters etc.) as
opposed to their meanings which were a secondary consideration. The
"text" can be listened to for phonetic qualities or for the images that
their meanings invoke. The organization of the words in relation to one
another was generally determined with no specific purpose in mind,
although there are some sparser sections where words were grouped
together for a vague attempt of poetic purpose. Several of the words
(including the title which does not actually appear in the piece) hold
personal significance for me. The performers are the composer's parents.

Andrew Czink:
Strike Slip (2005) 9:43

Strike Slip resulted from a
conversation with a geologist friend a number of years ago. A "strike
slip fault" is a particular kind of fault line which can result in an
earthquake. His description of how geological strata shift and slip or
scrape over one another left a compelling image. I made numerous
recordings of large flat stones scraping over one another, having
gravel pushed and crushed over their surfaces and using large metal
implements to scrape them. The variety of sounds resulting from the
close miking was quite astonishing: ranging from large overwhelming
blocks to tiny delicate grains of sound. The rhythmic scraping gestures
often resulted in a very "organic" sound; like the breathing (sometimes
calm, sometimes with a feeling of panic or fear) of a creature or
person. I used particle based formant synthesis, convolution and ring
modulation to elaborate and develop the gestural and textural nature of
the recordings and focus on their more poetic aspects. Particle
synthesis allowed me to isolate many of the "grains" inherent in the
recordings and work with them rhythmically and explore the continuum
between the micro level of sound and the middle ground of "notes", as
well as to amplify and exaggerate some of the gestural implications of
the sounds. The octophonic spatial diffusion of the sounds in the mix
was accomplished using the Richmond Sound AudioBox hardware routing
matrix and ABControl software.

sylvi macCormac: De Constructing Abuse
(2004) 12:30

I hope De Constructing Abuse
sheds some light on the effects of words & sounds in abusive
situations. We do not need to be hit to be hurt. A look, touch, a
gesture can say a thousand words. When someone constantly berates or
scares you with loud noises it breaks one's spirit. When one is caught
in the web of mixed messages one becomes confused. One lives in fear of
what is to come next - desperate for moments of joy or at least relief
or release. There are various shades of colour and grey areas in abuse
and communication. The timbre of sounds and abruptness of attack leave
no doubt as to th chains of command and control.

Abusive voices become
internalized. i used my own voice to convey that voices become loops
playing in our heads and pitch shifted my voice to be androgynous so th
abuser could be male or female. i wanted this composition to speak for
and to women & men who experience abuse at the hands and voices of
others. i used the sounds of breaking glass to represent the shards
that enter th heart and soul and the soundscape of th seaside to
represent solace and freedom from abuse. i included a song called
Ringing in Our Ears, from the album Coastal Chants (1992), and the
Soundscape recorded in 2004 which speaks to where i've been and where i
am.

De Constructing Abuse was
commissioned by NAISA (new adventures in sound art) and CBC's "Out
Front" for Deep Wireless: Radio Art without Boundaries, a month long
celebration of Radio Art with spatialized version presented as part of
the "Radio Theatre" performances at the Latvian House, Toronto.

Galen Elfert: Nebulae
(2005) 9:00

The sounds for this piece are
taken from various instruments of domestic life. Their treatment,
however, is acousmatic. The composition is guided by the perceptual
qualities of the disembodied sounds themselves, rather than any
conceptual relationship between their sources. The emphasis is on
timbre, and the piece moves through numerous sections, each with its
own distinct textures. In addition, a kind of tonal centre emerges from
the 60Hz hum of alternating current that runs through our electrified
world. Most of the transformation and diffusion of the sounds was
realized with software created by the composer using MAX/Msp.

Galen Elfert: Biblio (2005) 6:15

A soundscape composition, based
entirely on sounds gathered at the central branch of the Vancouver
Public Library. It presents the library soundscape as a series of
layers of descending quiet, and deals in part with the intrusion of
technology and noise into what has traditionally been a space of almost
sacred silence.

Jeffrey Mettlewsky: POST (2005) 9:20

POST is an 8-channel soundscape
composition using field recordings of the Vancouver Mail Processing
Plant. The unaltered sounds of individual machines sorting letters
provides a curious atmosphere and counterpoint, while the materials are
eventually processed to create an aural impression of the workplace.

Jeffrey
Mettlewsky: Unanswered? (2006), 6'

Unanswered? A studio
rendition of Charles Ives' chamber work, The Unanswered Question
(1906-1934). String quartet and trumpet are replaced by alternative
instruments that could not have otherwise been achieved without the
studio for editing and processing of the recordings. A graphic score
abstracts the previous arrangement for four flutes and is performed by
flautist Robert Aitken at the Orford Arts Centre in Quebec. The
characteristic spatial element of the original is captured by realizing
the new version in 8 channels. With many thanks to Yves Daoust and
Robert Aitken for their contributions to this project.

Andrew Douglas: The Lament for the
Children (2005) 8:20

The concept for "The Lament for
the Children" was inspired by the Ancient Bagpipe tune of the same
name. It was written roughly 400 years ago by a man named Patrick Mor
MacCrimmon, who lost seven of his eight sons to smallpox in the span of
a single winter.

Andrew
Douglas: Continuum (2006) 5.5'

Using small computer-generated
"grains," Continuum explores the relationship of rhythm and
pitch. While usually presumed to be independent of each other, the
precision and synchronicity that the computer can offer illustrates the
clear unity of these two musical concepts.

Sylvia
DeTar: Footsteps (2005) 10:45

Walking (hiking, wandering) for
long periods of time is one of the most meditative of pastimes - simple
countless footsteps add up in rhythm until nothing inhabits the
experience except individual thoughts and endorphin-induced, blissful
fatigue. Visual and aural scenery changes along with perception.
Footsteps are so basic to (most) humans, a sound we inevitably, and
with limited impact, contribute to the sonic environment. The sound of
footsteps is intoxicating; symbolizing journey, it's retrospective of
past wayward adventures, and it's relaxing - a time of self-reflection
and mind meandering.

Sylvia DeTar: Homecoming
(2006) 7'

Homecoming is a piece based
on a poem by the composer's talented sister, Lena DeTar. Growing up,
they were lucky enough to work and play with their archaeologist mother
in the redrock wilderness of the American Southwest. Lena wrote the
poem to express the unsettling feeling of returning to civilization
after immersing ourselves in the passionately harsh beauty of the
canyons.

I watch the last sand
swirl

near the drain of the
tub -

my feet are clean for the first
time

in weeks.

I step on the cool linoleum,

slip in a fresh shirt,
brush my wet hair.

All of this -

the bathroom,

the clothes,

my hands -

smells so civilized.

But that's ok -

for now.

Because in the steamy mirror,

(the first I've been in

since leaving home)

I see the Desert remains

in my sun burned eyes.

James
O’Callaghan: Casino(2007) 8’

A soundscape work which
explores the hyper-reality of the casino experience and relates it to
personal anxiety and agoraphobia. Created from sounds of casino
ambience and sounds of bodily discomfort.

Adam Basanta: is
the
Medium is the Message (2007) 11’

Harsh, abrasive, agitated,
obsessed with celebrity culture, overtly sexual, absurd, spreading
misinformation and nationalistic clichés; these are all aspects
of the television soundscape to which we are exposed. I chose to work
solely with materials derived from this soundscape, and through this
process highlight and critique the themes and syntax of television,
specifically the manner in which an onslaught of information, ranging
from the meaningful to the banal, creates a de-sensitization and
ultimately a triviality of the very information presented.

Adam Basanta: Transients and Resonances(2008) 8.5'

I have long wanted to compose
a piece using instrumental extended technique, which is then further
extended into the electroacoustic realm; in this composition, prepared
guitar is used as the source material. Within the electroacoustic
compositional realm, I used several spectro-morphological archetypes,
classifying them using the amount of “energy” they contained, and using
the idea of “energy transfer” between the archetypes as an organizing
principle. In my mind, this organization resulted in a relationship
between Resonances (slow, evolving, energy building gesture),
Transients (hard attacks and struck sounds, exuding energy), as well as
the resulting Particles (remnants of Transient collisions), leading to
the sound events’ perception as a cohesive, though state changing,
material entity.

With a low and distant roar, I explore
the musicality within the 'noisy' sounds of airplanes - sounds that are
most noticeable only in their absence (I am thinking here of New York
City immediately following the air-traffic ban post-9/11). By combining
these musicalized noises with more traditional, musical sounds from the
trombone, the ear has to listen with some dedication and attention to
discern which sound is coming from where. My intent with this
work was to use airplanes as instruments and instruments as noise
generators. This is accomplished by electronically processing the
trombone live in performance. Thus, the musical becomes noise and the
noise musical. These sounds do not represent a specific airstrip
or flightpath, but exist as remembrances to any experience of flight,
travel and the new possibility that a voyage can bring.

If we understand the
body to be the apparatus that mediates us between the inside and
outside world, then its sounds provide the necessary aural paths to
bridge the two. Though breathing is largely non-cognitive in nature —
we are unaware of it, as it were — I understand it as an incessantly
corporeal embodiment with the outside world. In this piece I sought to
explore an embodied aurality in order to unfold what is immanent within
us. It is my hope that this universal and bodily form of language will
permit the listener to take in the imaginative journey of another. As
we listen closely to how our body whispers, we can begin to conceive in
ever-vivid ways, human embodiment in all its bewildering yet subtle
facets.

Nathan Clarkson: Ephemeral Memories of Somewhere (2008),
9'

The title refers to the
practice of digital signal processing. Elements of the original
sounds are removed or brought forth and expanded upon much like the
memories we contain of our past.

Wynde Priddy: A Whole Bunch of
Sounds (2008), 4'

Working with local
artist and beatboxer Britt Neufeld, this piece was created to showcase
one modern paradigm within the long tradition of extended vocal
technique in electroacoustic music.

Peter Bowles: Outside
the
Innermost Squall (2008), 12.5'

For me, this piece is an
abstract journey to the inside of someone's mind and soul. Instead of
the journey being limited by the physical boundaries of their body,
they shrink to the micro level and escape into an infinite playground
(or battleground) that is theirs to discover or overcome. On this micro
level, they realize that their very being is subject to the all too
powerful and uncontrollable elements of nature. So whether we're
sailing upwind in a light breeze of introspection, falling into a
refreshing pool of epiphany, or suddenly caught in a storm of regret,
with any luck this journey will help put us in our little place and
evoke a new sense of harmony with nature. The source material for the
piece is a Tibetan singing bowl.

Elizabeth
Knudson: Recipe (2003) 11'

As is the case with composers or
individuals in any creative field, there are those who like to "do
things by the book", and those who prefer to improvise. But what
happens when a spontaneous thespian-turned-chef with a flair for the
absurd meets his match in a classic cookbook's recipe for a vegetable
stew? A duel of saxophones and kitchen sounds tells the tale...

The recipe quotations in this
piece were all taken from a veritable vintage cookbook, The Joy of
Cooking. The chef's rants, however, were completely ad lib,
courtesy of Clint Enns (note: not a "real" chef nor a "real" thespian).
Sax sounds were also improvised, courtesy of the composer. No
vegetables were seriously harmed in the creation of this piece.}

Phil
Thomson: Mountain (2003) (11:30)

Mountain is a soundscape
composition derived from walks around various parts of the SFU campus.
Different parts of the campus are mapped to different speakers, such
that sounds recorded in the northern part of the campus are heard on
the speakers which are to the north of the listener, west being to the
right, south in front, and east to the left. This affords the listener
a vantage point which would not otherwise be possible, allowing them to
hear sounds from different points on the compass/campus as if they were
in close proximity; a kind of "bird's ear view", a mix of
"untransformed" and "enhanced" soundscape recordings mingling with each
other in a space which is both imaginary and real.

Mark McIntosh:
Glass Wind (2003) (12')

Inspired by Nalo Hopkinson's short
story Under Glass, the Glass Wind is a haunting sonic tale of
survival in a world after the apocalypse. In this world, existence is
dictated by one's preparedness to deal with the ever-present wind
storms that carry minute shards of glass which shred flesh from bone in
seconds. Tdxt reading by the composer.

Brian Garbet: Would
You
Like Fries With That? (2002) 15:23

It was a dark and cold evening and
the snow was falling hard. Dressed incognito as a naive SFU
communications student, I set out into the night. My mission? Codename:
McCulture - to tackle the fast food industry and reveal its true face.
Armed only with a portable DAT recorder it was to be like David vs
Goliath. With the industry cloaked in a blanket of secrecy, a sinister
villain hiding behind toys-of-the-month, this was to be no easy task.
Had anyone ever attempted an aural documentation of this corporate cash
cow, I did not know. This is my story, and one tale I barely lived to
tell.